SLIFR Quiz

1) Second-favorite Stanley Kubrick film.
Full Metal Jacket, although I must add the proviso that I have not seen all his films.

2) Most significant/important/interesting trend in movies over the past decade, for good or evil.
For good: increased accessibility to a plethora of movies from various non-studio sources via various technologies and the existence of businesses like Netflix.
For evil: the continued success of romantic comedies that are neither romantic nor funny, as well as the casting rules that give us young women partnered with old men.

3) Bronco Billy (Clint Eastwood) or Buffalo Bill Cody (Paul Newman)?
I can't answer, I haven't seen either of these films

4) Best Film of 1949.
The Third Man

5) Joseph Tura (Jack Benny) or Oscar Jaffe (John Barrymore)?
Oscar Jaffe

6) Has the hand-held shaky-cam directorial style become a visual cliché?
I think that would depend on the context in which it is used.

7) What was the first foreign-language film you ever saw?
Le ballon rouge

8) Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) or Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre)?
Mr. Moto

9) Favorite World War II drama (1950-1970).
Catch-22...okay, I cheated, it's not exactly a drama.

10) Favorite animal movie star.
Asta

11) Who or whatever is to blame, name an irresponsible moment in cinema.
Another ongoing complaint from me about romantic comedies - stalking as a romantic act.

12) Best Film of 1969.
Best...I don't know, Midnight Cowboy, maybe. I have a soft spot for Sweet Charity, personally. You could see Fosse the director honing his directorial eye in this one.

13) Name the last movie you saw theatrically, and also on DVD or Blu-ray.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at the movie theater
The War Zone on DVD

14) Second-favorite Robert Altman film.
The Player

15) What is your favorite independent outlet for reading about movies, either online or in print?
I don't have one, but I'm partial to Self-Styled Siren's blog

16) Who wins? Angela Mao or Meiko Kaji? (Thanks, Peter!)
No clue

17) Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei) or Olive Neal (Jennifer Tilly)?
Mona Lisa Vito

18) Favorite movie that features a carnival setting or sequence.
The Elephant Man

19) Best use of high-definition video on the big screen to date.
No clue

20) Favorite movie that is equal parts genre film and a deconstruction or consideration of that same genre.
In The Mouth of Madness

21) Best Film of 1979.
All That Jazz is my favorite, if not the best

22) Most realistic and/or sincere depiction of small-town life in the movies.
I like Siren's answer - for some reason, I can only think of horror movies

23) Best horror movie creature (non-giant division).
Maybe this is why? I'm going to go with the Alien from Alien

24) Second-favorite Francis Ford Coppola film.
The Conversation

25) Name a one-off movie that could have produced a franchise you would have wanted to see.
Serenity

26) Favorite sequence from a Brian De Palma film.
I can remember a sequence that showed a man following a woman, but I don't remember which movie it was - I jsut remember feeling a sense of dread as it went on. Otherwise, the only movie of his that I remember explicitly is Carrie, and I guess the dream sequence at the end would be my favorite part.

27) Favorite moment in three-strip Technicolor.
Dorothy opens the door to Oz

28) Favorite Alan Smithee film. (Thanks, Peter!)
don't know

29) Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) or Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau)?
Morris Buttermaker - I have problems with Kevin Costner

30) Best post-Crimes and Misdemeanors Woody Allen film.
Bullets Over Broadway

31) Best Film of 1999.
Best is maybe The War Zone...Three Kings was also very good

32) Favorite movie tag line.
Don't Go In The Water

33) Favorite B-movie western.
don't know

34) Overall, the author best served by movie adaptations of her or his work.
don't know

35) Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) or Irene Bullock (Carole Lombard)?
Irene Bullock

36) Favorite musical cameo in a non-musical movie.
Meryl Streep singing Amazing Grace at the end of Silkwood

37) Bruno (the character, if you haven’t seen the movie, or the film, if you have): subversive satire or purveyor of stereotyping?
I have't seen the movie, but I suspect a little from column A, a little from column B

38) Five film folks, living or deceased, you would love to meet. (Thanks, Rick!)
Preston Sturges, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, George Sanders (if only because of everything I've read about him on Siren's blog), Orson Wells

Cheap Used Car Needed

I have a budget of $2000, and I need a car. I've been looking, and I will be doing some test-driving this weekend, but I thought I would harness the awesome power of my blog to bring the cars to me.

If you or anyone you know is selling a used car, preferably a 4 door automatic*, that will reliably get me through the next 10 months or so, and will easily pass an inspection if it is more than 10 years old, without requiring extensive repairs, please let me know.

*Can and will drive manual transmission, but my orthopedist will get mad at me if he catches wind of it.

Feeling particularly lonely tonight

because I didn't have rehearsal. I usually do the bulk of my real life socializing on Monday nights, and we skipped tonight. And my stories are much funnier with my facial expressions.

When did I become so boring?

I've written so many posts about the weather, it's a little embarrassing. I used to have a life filled with rehearsals and interesting conversations, and lately, it's all whining about the rain, hanging clothes on my clothesline and shopping for tents.

What happened to me?

Oh, weather, I can't stay mad at you

Not when you bring me days like yesterday and today. I am looking forward to some real summer weather, where it's hot enough that a swim is refreshing instead of something I have to brace myself to do, but clear blue skies, sunshine and breeze are the best.

Weather, you and I are not friends

A couple of months ago, our dryer died. No problem, I thought, I have a clothesline. I love clothes dried on the clothesline. Clothes and sheets and towels, slightly crisp and warmed by the sun, smelling of wildflowers and cut grass - what could be better?

Since I lost my dryer, it's as if New England has morphed into the Pacific Northwest. We've had rain every day this week. I can say the same for almost every other week since the end of April. I can walk by a window at work and see a glorious sunny day, but by the time I get out of work, the storm clouds have gathered.

This morning, I woke up and saw blue sky. I leapt out of bed, threw together a load of laundry, and washed it. I took the clean clothes out the clothesline, wearing my sunglasses and sweating a little under the already hot sun. And as I was hanging up the last item, I looked up and saw dark clouds moving in around the sun. By the time I was done, there was no sun, just flat, gray clouds, and that sensation of moistness that comes before a rain. I left the clothes on the line anyway, in the hopes that the rain staves off long enough to at least get my clothes partially dry.

TV Tonight

In honor of the upcoming 4th of July, Loki and I watched Jaws tonight. What a great flick, and it's even better when Loki shared with me a myth from the Sumerians about filling a monster with poisoned air which made him dissolve in fire....much like Brody shooting the oxygen tank in the shark's mouth. Mythology rocks. (Except when people decide that their mythology is actually real and try to force others to abide by the rules of their mythology, but that's a whole other can of worms).

I had forgotten that the tag at the end of House episodes contained a line from Jaws: That's a bad hat, Harry.

I have to talk about Roy Scheider. He was like a ball of kinetic energy, built for action, and yet, a thoughtful and intellectual actor. And that face, full of angles and edges...you could look at that face again and again and see something different every time.

I've seen this movie several times, but this time, I got all choked up when Quint is talking about the U.S.S. Indianapolis. It really got to me tonight.

Vacation on the brain

I am in the midst of planning two separate vacations, one for this summer and one for next summer.

After a lot of back and forth and figuring out dates and places, my sister-in-law and I have planned a little mini-vacation to Martha's Vineyard. We can't afford a hotel during the summer on MV, so we are staying at the one and only campground on the Vineyard. It got so-so reviews, apparently, one of the owners is a cranky sort, but we asked for a site in the hinterlands of the campgrounds, so hopefully we'll escape his cranky eyes.

I've only been camping once in my life, and it was not pleasant. My sister and I decided to have a little family vacation, so we picked out a campground in Gloucester, MA, and off we went, with husbands and children in tow. My family was in a tent, hers was in a camper.

Unfortunately, the campground apparently used some old pictures of itself when advertising on the internet. It was broken-down, the pool was closed, the pond was covered in green scum...and they wouldn't let us have a fire, which is almost the whole point of going camping. And then it rained for almost the entire 3 days we were there. Not pleasant at all.

So I'm taking a chance going again. Theoretically, I love the idea of sleeping in a tent, being in the outdoors, cooking over a fire, etc. Realistically, my body suffers even when sleeping on a fancy pillowtop mattress. I will be saving the rest of my Vicodin supply for the trip.

Our vacation next year will be a get together with some women I met on the internet in 1996, when I joined a list of people who were due to have babies in the same month. We're going to Phoenix. In July. Yes, I know. But the plus side is that we will be getting off-season pricing. We're going to hang out at a resort with a waterpark for a few days, then on to Sedona and then a few days at the Grand Canyon. I flew over the GC on my way to Las Vegas once (back at my old job, where I made so much more money and got to travel several times a year....oh, I miss it sometimes). I remember the pilot telling us to look out the right side windows, and I saw a bunch of canyons, thinking "that's it?", but those were just the precursors, because when we got to the Grand Canyon...I got choked up, truly. Tears in my eyes. (If my kids read this, they will roll their eyes, because I get choked up at everything).

I wish I could travel all the time. I don't mind the hassle of it, I'm always too excited about going someplace new.